Can 死ぬ be used for objects/places?

Question

Like in English, can the verb 死ぬ be used for places like towns or stores, like "Man, this town is dead." Or like with objects, "The phone is dead."

I'm thinking that 死ぬ can only be used for things that are animate, like people or animals. Is this correct? If so, what verbs/phrases would be better to use for the above examples?

Answer 1

この町は死んでいる is a perfectly understandable way of describing a ghost town ("liveliness" is an important factor of a town).

Something like スマホが死んだ is relatively common in slangy or geeky speech, too, but it normally means the smartphone is broken (the ordinary way of saying this is スマホが壊れた).